Burdened by interest costs of its recent acquisitions, Fortis Healthcare today reported a consolidated

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net loss of Rs 13.41 crore in the first quarter ended June 30.

The company, which had a net profit of Rs 7.60 crore in the same period previous fiscal, said for the period under review, its total expenses on interests, including finance charges, increased to Rs 70.93 crore from Rs 10.41 crore in the same period a year ago.

Expenses on overseas borrowings for investments in Singapore-based hospital chain Parkway Holdings was at Rs 36 crore, the company said.

In the first quarter this fiscal, total income of the company stood at Rs 337.92 crore compared to Rs 185.43 crore in the same period last fiscal.

The Singh family-owned Fortis had picked up 23.9 per cent stake in Parkway for about USD 685.3 million (nearly Rs 3,100 crore) when it bought TPG Capital's shares in March this year. Later, they increased it to 25.37 per cent holding, comprising 28.27 crore shares at an average share price of SGD 3.54. The total outgo from the Indian

firm was at about Rs 3,450 crore.

Last month, the company withdrew from the race with Malaysia's Khazanah to control Parkway and agreed to divest its stake in the Singapore-based hospital chain, in the process gaining about Rs 350 crore from its investment.

"The past quarter has been very exciting for us at Fortis. Apart from establishing our vision of being a Pan-Asian healthcare player, we have continued our focus on clinical excellence through improved quality of care", Fortis Healthcare Limited Managing Director Shivinder M Singh said.

Fortis, which has a current capacity of 5,500 beds, will add an additional 1,500 beds in the current fiscal.

"We are looking at a capacity of 8,000 beds in the next 18 months from the present 5,500 beds, out of which 1,500 beds will be added in the current fiscal", Fortis Healthcare CEO Bhavdeep Singh said in a conference call.

The company said its 414 bedded hospital in Kolkata and 250 bedded hospital at Shalimar Bagh, in the Capital will start operations in the current quarter.

On the overseas operations, he said the company is targeting to double its revenues

from the international operations to Rs 150 crore in the

current fiscal.

"We are looking at high end high quality specialized surgical procedures.. The growth is going to come from high end clinical specialty", Singh added.

Shares of Fortis Healthcare today closed at Rs 154.25 on Bombay Stock Exchange, up 0.42 per cent from its previous close.